We completed another season! It’s been such a wild ride and we hope to bring you an even better Season 3. Thank you to all of those who supported us along the way. Tell all your friends and keep going to the theatre. See you in the fall!

Lights. Camera. Glacier. Action! Maria is a young, emerging, female director working on her first major motion picture about global warming. However, the studio, the actors, her co-director/writer (and ex-boyfriend), and the on-set scientist, all seem to want to shoot a different film. As the film keeps slipping away from her, will the message of climate change be told truthfully… and in time?

Usher is trying to write a musical about an usher trying to write a musical about an usher trying to write a musical. However, writing proves to be an odyssey as his army of unrelenting insecurities and anxieties constantly attack him, and the more he writes, the more the approval of his family seems to slip away. Will Usher be able to conquer his issues or will he be consumed by them?

Constance’s husband is in critical condition from a devastating car crash. However, as she goes through his belongings, she discovers unsavory things about her husband… but also the element of love that binds.

It’s the penultimate episode!! Wow, can’t believe we’re almost done with another season. Though this month we are a little light on the recommendations side, we’re still pushing forward with some shout outs! Anyway, hope you have the chance to check out these shows!

Country X is occupied/colonized by Country Y. Then an incident involving the accusation of assault in a remote cave from a Country Y-er to a Country X-er explodes the simmering social tensions between the citizenry. Inspired by E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, Christopher Chen explores the nature of humanity and social prejudices.

BONUS SHOUT OUTS!

“Weaving through time from the 1850s to now, the intersection of sacred, ancestral land and tribal sovereignty as innate rights are explored in Bound, but do these rights end where the boundary of Mexico begins? The threats of building a wall and oil tycoons building pipelines through Native lands do not intimidate Marigold Page as she is determined that history will not repeat itself.” -from official website.

3 plays by 3 different emerging playwrights and directors! This summer we have:

LUNCH BUNCH (5/17 - 5/28)Written by Sarah EinspanierDirected by Tara Ahmadinejad”Seven public defenders on a quest for crumbs of joy.”

YOU NEVER TOUCHED THE DIRT (6/3 - 6/13)Written by Zhu YiDirected by Ken Rus Schmoll”The Lis, the Zhaos, the ghosts and the animals engage in a land feud.”

KING PHILIP’S HEAD IS STILL ON THAT PIKE JUST DOWN THE ROAD (6/19 - 6/29)Written by Daniel GlennDirected by Caitlin Ryan O’Connell”The councilmen of Plymouth Colony determine how to be Good in the New World.”

Inspired by George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum, this play takes us through a satirical journey of Afro America as all the black people prepare to make a mass exodus out of the country. Absurd, profound, and totally wild, Ain’t No Mo’ is a bold and daring look at contemporary America.

After being assaulted by the police, Leo begins to question his safety as a black man in America. His 3 friends, while going through their own emotional turmoil, attempt to support him in his time of imbalance. However, when Leo decides that he wants to BECOME a slave to his friend Ralph, fractures become chasms and the “white noise” keeps getting louder.

Heyooooo! This month actually has a BUNCH of great shows but we were a little short of time and couldn’t see them all… SO, we decided to shout out the ones we were super interested in and share them here too!

Akim is the prettiest girl in her town, receiving the adoration of everybody… Well, nearly everybody. When a boy (Kasim) turns on one of her friends to start flirting with Akim, all bets are off. With live music and fantastic dancing, this modern folktale explores womanhood and what it means to chase beauty.

Mary Seacole was a 19th century Jamaican nurse who tended to the soldiers fighting in the Crimean War. Generations later, black caretakers all over the world continue to uphold her legacy. Merging history with the present day, Marys Seacole is an extraordinary, dream-like, exploration of black migrants who are paid to care.

BONUS SHOWS! SHOUT OUT TO THESE PRODUCTIONS WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT!

“Franklin (Ronald Peet), a young black artist on the verge of his first show, meets Andre (Alan Cumming), an older white art collector, and before long their feverish link deepens into an irresistible bond. But when Franklin’s Christian mother, Zora (Charlayne Woodard), decides that her son is in peril, she enters into a battle of wills with Andre over the soul of the man they both call baby. Basquiats and Birkins, gospel and pop, and fantasy and reality collide around a Bel Air swimming pool in this deeply surreal exploration of intimacy and identity.” - from official website.

“Passions ignite when Layla, an intense literature professor, accuses Imran, a brashly iconoclastic novelist, of trading in anti-Muslim stereotypes. But as their attraction grows into something more, they discover that good sex doesn’t always make good bedfellows. Conflicting cultural identities collide in this thornily clever antidote to a “meet-cute” romance.” - from official website.

Polar vortexes followed by 61 degree, spring weather, February has been a temperature roller coaster so far. So dramatic! Supreme Leader Orangina Trump just gave the State Of The Union address stating that we can either have a working government or investigations but we cannot have both… What? How has this show not been cancelled yet?

Anyway! We got great shows for you this month. One of them is MY show so, yes, the recommendation is super bias but come support me!

A Japanese matriarch, diagnosed with cancer, brings this all-American family back together where they must face everything that has been buried for years. Taking place 7 years after Kentucky, will daughters Hiro and Sophie be able to restore their relationships? Will their stern and reluctant father step up and heal the open wounds from the past?

Set in Antebellum America with an absurd and Brechtian twist, fictitious characters Eleanor—cross-dressing as a white planter—and her husband, Bill—pretending to be her loyal servant—attempt to escape to the free state of Pennsylvania. Their operation is running smoothly until they meet Walsh, a drunk planter and member of the Not All Slavers organization, who steals Bill at a rest stop. Armed with a semi-automatic and her fair skin, Eleanor sets out to rescue him by any means necessary.

“Suicide Forest is a bilingual nightmare play excavating the Japanese-American consciousness and its looming relationship with sex, suicide, and identity. In 1990’s Japan, a teenage girl grapples with her sexuality in a nightmarish, male-defined society as a salaryman desperately tries to escape his masochistic psyche. Both are clawing for their self-worth. When their two journeys collide, they expose their darkest desires fueled by shame as they now confront life and death with the notorious Suicide Forest looming over their imagination. Performed by a Japanese heritage cast, Suicide Forest examines the role of community and the inner struggles of emotional, psychic and social suicide through the playwright’s lived stories and inner landscape.“ -From official website.

Welcome to 2019, everybody! I hope you all had a great (given the circumstances) 2018 and will have an even better 2019.

This episode we recap our favorite shows from last year with special guest Diep Tran from Token Theatre Friends! Also, make sure to check out Logan’s new show at MCC, The Light. Performances begin late January.

Watch the episode for our brief discussions on each show but here’s the breakdown of our Best of 2018:

DIEP:

WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO MESLAVE PLAY

MARIA:

SYNCING INKIS GOD ISWILD GOOSE DREAMS

RAY:

WHAT TO SEND UP WHEN IT GOES DOWN (and IS GOD IS)FAIRVIEWPASS OVER

Rashad and Genesis are a loving young couple but their bond is shaken when certain things from their past unravel themselves on one fateful night. The Light is a 2 hander that unfolds in real time, as we journey with the characters through their tumultuous night.

This month is Ray’s recommendations because Maria was away but the shows are bomb as always!

December was a display in black excellence as we have 3 incredible shows helmed by both a black playwright and director. Each has a very unique take on the navigations of blackness in America, all incredibly worth watching.

Patrick Dorismond. Botham Jean. Sandra Bland. Trayvon Martin. What to Send Up When It Goes down is part ritual, part theatrical vignettes, and part love letter that viscerally explores the black experience in America by honoring the victims of police violence from the past, to uplift all of us in the present, in hopes of paving the way for the future.

Three black/white interracial couples engage in an antebellum themed sexual role play. As the couples unpack their experiences, their unconscious desires and racist baggage begin to unravel itself. What does it mean to be conscious of one’s own fetish when said fetish is completely normalized?

Undine is a famous, successful, and very rich CEO of a PR firm. She has a gorgeous Argentinian husband and the world at her fingertips. That is until she finds out that her gorgeous Argentinian husband embezzled all of her money leaving her dead broke. Returning to her humble roots of the Walt Whitman projects in Brooklyn with her family, she gets herself in a slew of wacky, quirky, and absurd situations that make her reflect on all she has lost in her pursuit of fortune. Can she reclaim the humanity she, herself, willingly threw away?

Though it may not feel like it today (global warming is among us), the season has definitely changed and my red parka has been released from the closet along with a bunch of comforters. As usual, Maria and I have been out on the town checking out great theatre and below are our November picks, plus a bonus from Hansol!

Returning to her hometown in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, this moving (emotionally and literally) meta-theatrical journey through Nkechi’s life in the wake of her childhood friend, MJ’s, death reveals the intricate web of memories that shape us to be who we are.

Deborah and her two children, Lauren and Mark, are a proper and respectable black family—emphasis is put on order, cleanliness, and etiquette. However, cracks begin to reveal itself as Deborah has difficulty dealing with Lauren’s queerness, Mark’s strange verbal outbursts, and her own respectability politics at work. What are the costs of self-maintenance of black—particularly female—bodies in America?

“Minsung is a “goose father,” a South Korean man whose wife and daughter have moved to America for a better life. Deeply lonely, he escapes onto the internet and meets Nanhee, a young defector forced to leave her family behind in North Korea. Amidst the endless noise of the modern world, where likes and shares have taken the place of love and touch, Minsung and Nanhee try their best to be real for each other. But after a lifetime of division and separation, is connection possible?” - From official website.

RE: ENDORSES THIS BONUS RECOMMENDATION FROM HANSOL:

“It’s springtime in America. The war is finally over. Grotilde has completed her life’s work of losing the last 10 pounds, General Michail has proposed, and the President is up to his new tricks. So what if the weather is a little strange and the last soldier won’t come home?” - From official website.

What’s really good, October? It’s been so long. We missed you! I hope the summer has treated you well and are ready for the fall because RE: is back again to deliver the goods for Season II. Our first guest for the new season is Native American playwright, Larissa FastHorse. She talked about her new play going up at Playwrights Horizons and what it means to be a Native artist in America (among a lot more). Check it out!

A theatrical docu-drama about Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was assassinated by her government in 2006. Embodied by three actors, Intractable Woman takes you on a journey through her harrowing life to explore her legacy of seeking the truth at any cost.

What does it mean to prepare for your own death as a black man in America? Kareem M. Lucas’ Rated Black mourns, celebrates, sings, and preaches—in beautiful poetry—the journey to this answer. A moving portrait of an artist as a young man.

Four white teaching artists attempt to put on the most politically correct Thanksgiving Play by celebrating both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month. See what happens when “wokeness” goes wrong.

Just returned from a 4 day retreat in a palatial house the middle-of-no-where Vermont with my fellow Play Groupers. Getting out of NYC to hear the wind shake tall trees and smell the crisp and clear air are always such a gift. I never really thought I'd need escapes like this until you go to one and get real, anxiety-less, sleep.

I was able to decompress and get tons of reading done. Talking shit with other playwrights was also therapeutic and fun. Feeling very privileged to be able to have this support.

Now that I'm back, however, RE: will be back with in full swing! Excited to be getting back into the thick of it.